Disney and Harvey Weinstein are making an Artemis Fowl movie

By Mike Vago | July 30, 2013 | 3:30pm

Aux Features Film

Since the moment the box office closed on Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone's opening weekend, Hollywood has been searching for the next Harry Potter, i.e. a beloved series of books that appeal to young and old, that could also be turned into a massively profitable series of films. The latest attempt is Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl—a series of young-adult books about a 12-year-old genius who's also millionaire criminal mastermind. And also there are fairies, because "12-year-old criminal mastermind" isn't interesting enough on its own.

To produce the first in what hopes to be a long-running series (Colfer has written eight Artemis books so far), Disney has brought in its own criminal mastermind, longtime frenemy Harvey Weinstein, who's owned the rights to the Artemis series since 2000. The in-development film will combine the first two books in the series, with Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix screenwriter Michael Goldenberg enlisted to write the script. It is tentatively titled The Next Harry Potter.